Me in the gorge, with "The Cathedral" behind.
FEELING GO - THE DRAKENSBERG
(REMEMBER: IF YOU'RE MENTIONED BY NAME ITS COS I LOVE YOU DEARLY. IF YOU'RE NOT, ITS ONLY TO PROTECT MYSELF IN THE LIBEL COURT)
WOAH. The only word that sprung into my head as I stood on the grassy slope behind the Ampitheatre Backpacker hostel in the Northern Drakensberg, looking on forever into a massive crater like expanse of grassy wilderness, bordered some twenty miles away by a wall of rock which mirrored the one beneath my feet. The huge horseshoe of shear slopes and plateau that swept round from the horizon to the spot where I was stood is known as the Ampitheatre, and its easy to see why. I was staying near the village of Mazzizi, which was located an hour and a half's constant cycle freewheel somewhere in the bottom of the valley.
This area of South Africa is a hikers paradise, with numerous trails to follow, some of which lead up and across the Drakensberg Plateau into the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. I went on a couple of walks, one of which involved cycling from one side of the Ampitheatre to the other, which the hostel owner had optimistically told me would take 2 hours, where in fact in took something nearer 4 and a half. Still, it was still worth the cycle to be able to wander through this gorge.
Me in the gorge, with "The Cathedral" behind.
THE CATHEDRAL WALK
One of the best walks I did was up to "The Cathedral", a towering mass of rock by the side of the main plataeu of The Ampitheatre. I was accompanied by a few others, under the expert guidance of Phum. The first suprise on this walk was to see a DASSIE, the closest living relative of the elephant. You can see all of its impressive two foot long body here.
A dassie. He may be small but if you mess with him, you mess with his whole extended family.
The second surprise was to find TUGELA FALLS, the world's second highest waterfall at 976 metres. As you can see from the photo, the river wasn't flowing particularly strong, but it was still frighteningly cool to lean over the edge and look one whole kilometre straight down.
Tugela Falls. Falling from 3000m above sea level... to just over 2000m above sea level.
The only way down off the plateau top was on a rickerty chain ladder, which the novice mountaineers amongst navigted gingerly. Phum on the other hand threw himself about with the agility of a bargain hunting monkey in the January sales.
Me on the edge of the Ampitheatre before negotiating the chain ladders.
MAZZIZI VILLAGE
it wasn't all walking. I took a tour around the local village, where I saw the rock art of the San people. nomads who habitated the area before being almost irradicated by the Zulu. I visited the craft centre where I sat in a traditional zulu hut. The hut was made of woven grass and sticks and had a low doorway to force visitors to bow to the head of the house on entering.
LEFT: Me sitting in a traditional zulu hut.
RIGHT: San rock art.
We also visited a local artist. Back in 1987 a plane flew over the vilage, and from this the guy was inspired to build model planes out of scrap metal. His house was even made into a plane shape from old scraps: you should be able to see the sides made from old combi vans.
The plane man's house, still to be completed.
The man obviously had vision and talent. It was also apparent that he was as mad as an orange, so we made our excuses and left.
We then went to the local Shabeen, had a few more polite sips of UNCOMBOTI, and danced with the people. It was then time for me to visit the Sangoma, the local witch doctor. A strange experience that I'll keep to myself if you don't mind...